One Place to Check for a Fishy Electric Smell
Five months after we moved into our townhouse, we started to notice a really bad odor in the unfinished part of our basement. The smell was difficult to describe, but it reminded me of rotting fish. The most frustrating part about the smell was that I couldn’t determine where the bad odor was originating.
I spent many nights sniffing, poking, and crawling in my attempt to find the source. At one moment, I’d feel like I was getting close to it, only for it to vanish until I’d “locate” it again somewhere else. I began thinking there might be a decomposing animal in my dryer, duct work, walls, or floors.
It became even more interesting when I discovered that Fred and Kim (two other authors here at One Project Closer) had the same bad odor in their unfinished basement. We turned to Google to find a solution. Here’s what we learned.
A lot of people have odors or scents in their houses, and it’s rather difficult to describe them with words. Descriptions we found online included “moldy”, “animal-like”, and “moist”, to name a few. None seemed to fit our situation, until Fred found something about old light fixtures giving off bad fishy smells when they are heated up.
We learned that some old cermic-based lamp fixtures were made with a plastic collar at the base of the fixture, which when hot, gives off a bad fishy odor. We both had these lamps in our basements. This also explains why the smell was intermittent and infrequent: the light needed to heat up for a few minutes before the odor was strong enough to smell. We both removed these rings/collars from the lamps and have been odor free ever since.
We later learned that this same odor occurs when a short circuit in a receptacle or switch melts the plastic components nearby. It’s actually a very common problem.
There are a lot of good resources for locating and identifying a strange smell (just Google for ”weird/strange/fishy house smells”.) But first, be sure to check all of your receptacles and lamps!
Comments & Conversation on this Article...
13 Responses to One Place to Check for a Fishy Electric Smell
February 13th, 2008 7:39 am
I’ve had lights with that very same stinky ring!
We also had a strange intermittent fishy smell awhile back. I thought it was just bradford pears in bloom or something coming through the AC from outside.
I finally realized what it was when I accidentally bumped against an outlet and burned myself. It was an electric short burning away; it had melted half of the outlet and the AC plug that was going into it. We had to replace the entire plug. I went around feeling all the outlets around the house and replaced a few more warm ones. Scary stuff!
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February 13th, 2008 5:20 pm
I saw a lot online about electic outlets / boxes burning away sheilding or worse. It is scary. All the more reason to find those awful smells!
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February 13th, 2008 5:54 pm
Amalie,
Did you ever find out what was making the other outlets warm (if they weren’t shorting?) Was it that the outlet had corroded somehow? Or, was the outlet not rated for the circuit?
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February 13th, 2008 7:10 pm
Pretty sure they were all shorting– the one that actually melted was glowing red behind the receptacle. Now that I’m typing this, I’m being told that all the outlets were on the same circuit and the melty one was shorting the whole circuit. None of the others were quite as warm, but I figured that was because they weren’t used as much as the one with the AC.
Once you know the smell is electrical, you’ll never forget it!
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October 5th, 2008 9:14 pm
We have had problems with a fishy/ammonia smell in our house not long after it was built six years ago. This smell only occurs in our den and spare bedroom, both at the front of the house.
It often occurs during rainy or low-pressure weather, and only in spring and fall. These rooms are close to the municipal sewer connection in the front yard, but it doesn’t really smell “sewery.”
We at first thought the odour was coming from the air exchange vents in the rooms but we’ve had it checked and that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Any suggestions as the possible source of this smell – which can be so bad as to be headache-inducing – would be appreciated.
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October 5th, 2008 9:38 pm
@John, Unfortunately, it could a lot of different things. Any chance it’s moisture related? Small leak helping fungus grow? Any idea if the rain “brings out” the smell somehow?
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October 5th, 2008 9:54 pm
Thanks for quick reply. I would think the odours would be more persistent if it was mould. And the smell is so strong, can mould produce something like that?
We have speculated that temperature and air pressure changes during rainy weather in autumn and fall might be causing some kind of air movement in the HRV system, bringing the bad air from somewhere.
But we do plan on pursuing the mould possibility – we’ve had plumbers, HRV techs, home inspectors, etc. trying to figure this out. It’s really stressful.
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May 27th, 2009 5:34 pm
hi , we have this same problem however it generally occurs during warm/hot weather. thought of electrical probs but not sure if it is?? any ideas??
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May 31st, 2009 2:25 pm
I posted last year on this. Like others, our problem turned out to be a light fixture. Specficaly the lights in our ceiling fans. We had exactly the same make (Hunter River) in both den and spare badroom. We realized the smell occurred when the lights were turned on for a while. Fan-only operation doesn’t produce any smell. We just took the lights out of the fans and didn’t investigate further.
But we’ll look at the socket collars and see if they’re melted.
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October 26th, 2009 6:21 am
Hey guys.. I rlly wanna thank u Ethan about this unnoticeable trick.. All lamps and switches should always be checked up, otherwise it might get worse and worse.. And Im sincerly ready to find someone with whom i can participate and try to inform popular societies about this bad fixture.. It is rlly worth to have an eye on it ..
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October 26th, 2009 9:44 am
We used a lower wattage light in the fan fixture and that seemed to fix the problem. The higher wattages must heat up the plastic enough to cause the smell.
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February 17th, 2010 1:26 am
WE RECENTLY REPLACE THE THERMOSTAT AND EVERYTHING WAS FINE FOR A WHILE AND NOW WHEN WE TURN ON THE HEATER( CENTRAL UNIT ELECTRIC) FROM THE VENTS COMES A WEIRD SMELL LIKE PLASTIC. WE ARE VERY WORRY, DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. HELP, PLEASE…THANKS
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September 14th, 2010 5:54 pm
I just wanted to comment on the article that showed the ring around the lamp that was causing a fishy smell. We had the same problem and found that it was the ring on our bedside lamp that holds the shade in place. This ring looks ceramic (white in color) but I believe it is some type of composite material that when heated gives off an awful odor. We have since replaced the ring and no more odor.
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